IPL 2017: RPS vs DD – Match Preview, Fantasy picks and TV guide

The Match 9 of the Vivo IPL 10 features two teams struggling to get their campaign going. Steve Smith’s Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) will host Zaheer Khan’s Delhi Daredevils (DD) in Pune. Both teams are coming after suffering defeats in their previous matches. While RPS were the victims of the Maxwell-Punch, DD were bamboozled by Pawan Negi’s last over heroics. Both teams will be keen on getting back to winning ways.

Rising Pune Supergiant have a host of the problems to worry about. Their opening partnership is not firing, their fast bowling looks toothless while their spinners, barring Tahir, have also not risen to the occasion. The failure on part of their batsmen to put up a par score against KXIP exposed their woes. The only positive (apart from Tahir) from the last match was the coming of age of Ben Stokes and Manoj Tiwari. Jaidev Unadkat might get a look-in replacing an expensive Dinda. Rest of the combination looks fine and needs to fire as a Team.

Delhi Daredevils lost their season opener because of their batting. Their fairly-young batting line-up, along with the big hitting all-rounders like Braithwaite and Morris, failed to take their team home against a depleted RCB. Their bowlers did a fabulous job to keep RCB under 160 and will be expected to put up another inspired bowling performance. Their batsmen, especially the trio of Billings, Samson and Nair, need to shoulder more responsibility so that the mistakes of the last match are not repeated.

Top Fantasy Pick Batsman: Steve Smith

The Australian Captain has been in supreme form right from the start of Australian Summer last year. He was the highest run-scorer in the recently concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy and carried his form into this year’s IPL when his blistering 84* sealed the game for Pune in the Maharashtra Derby. With loads of runs this season, Smith is the top choice among batsmen in this clash.

Top Fantasy Bowler: Imran Tahir

The world no.1 white-ball bowler vindicated his selection by RPS as injured Marsh’s replacement by picking up 5 wickets in 2 games. With his economy-rate also good, he is the pick of the RPS bowlers so far and is surely deserving to be a part of any fantasy eleven.

Top Fantasy All-rounder: Ben Stokes

Stokes started the repayment of his 14 Cr price tag by smacking a 32-ball fifty in the last match. His partnership with Manoj Tiwari enabled RPS to put up a respectable total. His all-round abilities are world renowned and make him a must have an all-rounder in any XI.

Top Punt Player: Sanju Samson

The stylish Kerala batsman is too talented to fail continuously. He will be raring to vindicate his coach’s confidence in his abilities. His exploits in the previous seasons make him even more dangerous and RPS bowlers will want to remove him early to break into Delhi’s inexperienced lower middle order.

RPS vs Delhi Daredevils – TV Guide

One can tune into Set Max at 8 pm to catch the live action in Hindi while Sony Six brings it in English. Viewers can also watch the live streaming on Hotstar.